The Delhi civil war of 1753

01A wazir dismissed

Safdar Jang, Nawab of Awadh and wazir since 1748, had made enemies of the emperor and the Turani nobles. In March 1753 he left the capital in anger, was dismissed, and set up his camp outside the walls. Young Imad-ul-Mulk, grandson of the first Nizam, led the court party and called in Najib Khan’s Rohillas. Safdar Jang crowned a youth as a rival emperor and brought in Suraj Mal’s Jats.

02Eight months of fighting

From spring to autumn the two sides fought around the Purana Qila, Old Delhi and the suburbs. In May the Jats sacked the old city and its outlying quarters, a plunder Delhi long remembered. Neither side could win outright. Imad-ul-Mulk sought Maratha help, and Raja Madho Singh of Jaipur brokered terms. In November 1753 Safdar Jang left for Awadh, keeping his province but losing the wazirship; he died the next year.

Dynasty · 1722–1948 CE (Jat resistance from 1669)Jats of BharatpurThe Jat peasantry of Braj rose against the Mughals in 1669 under Gokula, and out of that long revolt Badan Singh and his son Suraj Mal built a kingdom with its capitals at Deeg and Bharatpur. Lohagarh, the mud-walled fort of Bharatpur, threw back a British army four times in 1805.Read →